How to Change Your Twitter Handle…The Right Way

After meeting Coach Deb (Deborah Micek) at BlogWorld, she gave me some advice on changing my Twitter handle. According to the book, Twitter Revolution, which she co-wrote with Warren Whitlock, it’s a good idea to have a handle without underscores or numbers.

The reasons are:

Underscores and numbers give the impression that your first choice was taken, showing that you’re a late adopter (or at least not the first adopter.)

It’s more work on an iPhone (a popular Twitter interface) to get to the numbers or underscores.

They take up more characters, and with 140 characters per message, space is at a premium.

Now, there are exceptions to every rule. Your may be known as the B2C Coach, in which case a number might be preferable. Or, you may have a handle that requires a well-placed underscore like @speedofart, @therapistfinder or @penisland (courtesy Bad Domain Names.)

If you do want to change your handle, Twitter makes it easy. First off, you don’t lose any of your followers. There’s nothing they need to do. Making the change requires a simple two-part process and a second email address.

First, click on the settings tab at the top.

Then change your name.

Assuming your name is available, that’s it. However, you might want to take this second step.

Create a new Twitter account using a second email address (thanks, Gmail!) under the original, now available Twitter handle. Post a tweet that asks everyone to follow you at your new handle.

Nice 2 meet u "again" and for the 1st time at BWE08 this year (and uh… last apparently! LOL) You are too fun to hang out with

http://TribalSeduction.com @CoachDeb

Nice 2 meet u "again" and for the 1st time at BWE08 this year (and uh… last apparently! LOL) You are too fun to hang out with

http://www.ireflectm.com Carlos Hernandez

Rich,

Thanks for posting a practical tool which becomes necessary as one's brand evolves.

You added a lot of value to the BlogWorld panel and culture!

See you online!

http://www.ireflectm.com Carlos Hernandez

Rich,

Thanks for posting a practical tool which becomes necessary as one's brand evolves.

You added a lot of value to the BlogWorld panel and culture!

See you online!

http://www.southern-france.info LinannopY

Excellent site http://www.flyteblog.com and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here: this .. as it's taken me literally 2 hours and 26 minutes of searching the web to find you (just kidding!) so I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor

http://www.southern-france.info LinannopY

Excellent site http://www.flyteblog.com and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here: this .. as it's taken me literally 2 hours and 26 minutes of searching the web to find you (just kidding!) so I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor

http://elonanit.blogspot.com Tina

I have 2 twitter accounts and want to combine them into one – which means I own the twitter handle I want to change my original one from…hope that makes sense. Can you help me with that. Essentially I want to move all of my followers from @tinanole to @onlylivingirl

http://elonanit.blogspot.com Tina

I have 2 twitter accounts and want to combine them into one – which means I own the twitter handle I want to change my original one from…hope that makes sense. Can you help me with that. Essentially I want to move all of my followers from @tinanole to @onlylivingirl

http://www.flyte.biz Rich Brooks

Tina,

I don’t believe that’s possible. You’ll just have to ask your followers to follow you at the new account and hope for the best. You can also occasionally tweet from one to follow you at the other one.

http://www.flyte.biz Rich Brooks

Tina,

I don’t believe that’s possible. You’ll just have to ask your followers to follow you at the new account and hope for the best. You can also occasionally tweet from one to follow you at the other one.

http://www.flyte.biz Rich Brooks

Tina,

I don’t believe that’s possible. You’ll just have to ask your followers to follow you at the new account and hope for the best. You can also occasionally tweet from one to follow you at the other one.

http://www.howtolaunchastartup.com Akshay Arabolu

Thanks for the tutorial. Very helpful for someone getting all set to dive into the social media world!

http://www.howtolaunchastartup.com Akshay Arabolu

Thanks for the tutorial. Very helpful for someone getting all set to dive into the social media world!